A recent map of North Atlantic currents shows warm, subtropical water being ferried far into the northern latitudes. The increased water temperature has enabled fast sea ice and glacier melt in recent years. (Source: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Warmer ocean currents are driving Greenland's glacial melt.

It
remains to be seen exactly how much mankind understands the science
of climatology. While global climate models continue to be produced,
disproved, corrected, and debated in the administration, there is
still some solid research being done. And that research keeps showing
that there's a possibility that climate science is missing large
tracts of data it needs.

Recently DailyTech reported
on research concerning the Bering
Strait and how this comparatively small geological formation
might be responsible or at the least involved in the regulation of
the North American temperature via ocean currents. Oceans have been
understood to partially control temperatures and overall climate for
years, but marine science has only recently been getting any media
time with all the political hubbub over the global climate change
debates.

A multi-institutional research team, led by Fiamma
Straneo, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution physical
oceanographer, has been studying
ice loss in Greenland, particularly in the Sermilik Fjord, which
connects the Irminger Sea to the Helheim glacier. The last decade has
seen accelerated ice loss in Greenland -- the Helheim glacier has
already retreated by several kilometers.

Unfortunately, the
area has not been monitored regularly for long enough to perfectly
reconstruct the ice melts before the recent accelerated melt, but a
combination of ship and moored survey data, combined with temperature
and depth data taken from the radio collars of hooded seals in the
area have allowed them to piece together just how quickly things can
change.

They found that changes in the North Atlantic ocean
currents have been bringing much warmer, subtropical water further
and further north. Water as warm as four degrees celsius was found
during the time data. That warm water combined with swift current
propagation has enabled the massive uptake in Greenland's glacial
ice. The warmer water quickly moves through the fjords, taking away
with it the melted ice and keeping the temperatures relatively
warm.

Straneo explains, "This is the first extensive
survey of one of these fjords that shows us how these warm waters
circulate and how vigorous the circulation is. Changes in the
large-scale ocean circulation of the North Atlantic are propagating
to the glaciers very quickly — not in a matter of years, but a
matter of months. It's a very rapid communication."

She
goes on to stress how little is known about ocean-glacier
interactions and that continuous observation will be extremely
important in coming to a full picture of how they affect each other
and sea-level regulation. It is also likely that understanding how
these entities cooperate will help understand how the ocean currents
and sea ice as a whole may affect regional and global climates. A
rapid influx of cool, fresh water could serve to disrupt the global
ocean current system, known as the Ocean Conveyor even as the area
appears to be warming.

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Last time I heard NASA was a space exploration division of the US government. Not climate experts. And since they are funded almost entirely by the government, do you actually expect them to go against the grain ?

And the NSIDC ?? Good grief man, they have been involved in more scandals than Bill Clinton. You drop their name like it's credible !?!

Graba, it's obvious you can neither believe or comprehend the massive scope of the global warming scandal. I know it's hard to fathom, it honestly is, but do yourself a favor and deal with it.

quote: Fear the Faith.

I do fear the faith. Belief in Climate Change is an absolute faith. A religion. Backed up by about as much facts and science as a Christian would use proving there were a god.

quote: Last time I heard NASA was a space exploration division of the US government. Not climate experts.

In space there are planets, among which there is the Earth. NASA has had for a very long time experts on everything that regards climate (ocean/fluid dynamics expert, atmospheric physicists and chemists, biosphere and cryosphere experts, etc ...), whether it is to study Earth's climate or other planets'. I am not sure why you think there are no climate experts at NASA, but you should really be more curious about what NASA does ...

quote: And since they are funded almost entirely by the government, do you actually expect them to go against the grain ?

Your point being that when the government was AGW skeptics, NASA scientists were skeptics too? Or does it work only one way?

Our Government has never, EVER, been "skeptical" of Global Warming. They latched onto it and started passing regulations based on it before ANY hard science was done on it. And now we see how reputable even the "hard science" has been on it. None. A fraud, a lie, 100%.

quote: I am not sure why you think there are no climate experts at NASA, but you should really be more curious about what NASA does ...

There is no such thing as a "climate expert". That's the dirty little secret climategate has exposed. No models have shown to be accurate. Hell, half the "experts" said this recent snow storm wouldn't even happen. If you can't predict what happens next week, how in the hell can you tell me what's it going to look like in 100 years ?

Who are these "climate experts" ?? Can you point me to one piece of work they have done that is relevant, useful, and beneficial in some way ?

If I went to college for 8 years for horticulture, and told you I was a "grass expert" and that if you didn't bulldoze your front lawn you were going to die, would you do it ? Of course not !! That's f'ing absurd. But for some reason you and every other sheeple gives the same power to "climate experts" ?

Just live your goddamn life and let others do the same. This issue is OVER. You have lost. You lied, cheated, ruined peoples lives, stolen untold prosperity, and in the end it all came down on your sides heads.

If you can't call a fraud a fraud after it's been exposed right in front of your own eyes, then you people deserve to be as miserable as you are.

"Lol, well of course the NSIDC and NASA are less informed than Masher."

Don't smear all of NASA with this climate change nonsense. The climate division is GISS, which is really just a few guys at Columbia University, who lobbied the government to become NASA's official "climate science wing".

GISS is led by James Hansen, a personal friend of Al Gore's, and a man who began making ridiculous GW pronouncements way back in the 1980s -- look at his papers from 1985, where he was predicting warming of 20-30F!

NASA has a lot of good folks. Don't smear them by associating them with GISS.

A quick overview is a blogger put in a FOIA request to NASA GISS two years ago that was finally honored a few weeks ago. NASA GISS is the division that studies global temperatures. Here is a quote from one of the emails obtained: "I got a copy from a journalist in Brazil, we don’t save the data." How trustworthy can these scientists be if they have to get copies from journalists?

So, in response to your sarcastic reply, it would appear that Masher is better informed than NASA. How sad is that? It looks like WHOI is more informed than NASA GISS too.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer